The cost to maintain the dredging of the inlet over the past five years comes to $3.3 million, New Hanover County Commissioners heard in a November hearing on the issue. Of the total costs, most were assessed to properties on Figure Eight Island, which will owe $2.7 million of the total.

Property owners got the cost assessments in early December, officials said, with costs for Wrightsville Beach property owners ranging from as low as $4 to more than $13,000.

An attorney for Shell Island Resort said that the condominium residents owed 84 percent of Wrightsville Beach’s share of the costs, which he said was too high and should be revisited. The attorney acknowledged that the dredging saved the building from destruction, but added that parts of the project, like dredging the Intracoastal Waterway behind the inlet, mainly benefited Figure Eight Island, which should be assessed the costs, he said.

Shell’s recent success in the US Gulf of Mexico includes its deepwater Dover discovery on Mississippi Canyon 612, reported last year, near its Appomattox platform. The well was drilled by the Deepwater Poseidon ultra-deepwater drillship. Sources: Shell, Transocean.

In lieu of the traditional shovel groundbreaking, Miami City Commission chair Ken Russell, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Miami city manager Emilio T. Gonzalez (pictured l-r) perform the ceremonial water toss to mark the start of the first Miami Forever Bond project tackling flooding and sea-level rise. (Photo by City of Miami Office of Communications)